That said, I looked into the very same thing (I'd love to have GNOME (or whatever) terminal on the box when I'm in front of it, but a 1:1 mapping to screen tabs when working on it remotely).

What I did find was an old bug/discussion for GNOME Terminal. Sadly, not much seems to have come of it, but at least there does seem to be some interest in such. Maybe someone will be itching enoug at some point to scratch it.